Aeroflot will deploy its A350-900s on routes between Moscow and London, Dubai, New York, Miami, Osaka, and Beijing. The A350 XWB has a flight range of 9,700 NM. Its Airspace by Airbus cabin design offers passengers and crews a quiet and comfortable flying experience.

"I'm pleased we can accelerate the transition of Tigerair to an all B737 fleet which will help get the business into a better financial position moving forward," Chief Executive Paul Scurrah said.

The low-cost carrier currently operates nine A320-200s and six B737-800s, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. Out of the A320s, two were already scheduled for phase-out this year. The new plan also foresees the other seven aircraft being retired by October 2020. In turn, Tigerair will receive an additional two B737-800s from sister carrier Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane Int'l).

"Short-term capacity reductions will be made on the Tasman in Q4FY20 [from April to June 2020] due to weakening demand attributable to coronavirus," the group added.

In total, Virgin Australia Group will reduce its total capacity for the period January-June 2020 by 3%. The holding estimates that the drop in demand caused by the COVID-19 epidemic will have a AUD50-75 million Australian dollar (USD33-49 million) impact on its financial results this fiscal year.

"We are doing an exploration at the moment. If the deal is worth doing, we absolutely want to do one this year, but it is too early to speculate," Scurrah said.

The group owns one A330-200 and four B777-300(ER)s, while the remainder of its widebody fleet is leased. Scurrah said that if Virgin Australia chooses to place a widebody order, it will target deliveries before the leases start expiring in 2024.

Thursday, 27 February 2020

DGCA to audit Air India's Airbus A319s

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated an audit of all A319-100s operated by Air India (AI, Mumbai Int'l) after a passenger complained that a broken panel had obstructed an emergency exit on one of the aircraft, The Economic Times has reported.

"As an immediate corrective action, an engineering order to inspect and rectify the defect has been issued for compliance. As a preventive action, all Airbus 319 aircraft will be inspected to ensure the secured and correct installation of the panel during major checks," the flag carrier told the regulator.

The DGCA spotted the irregularity after a passenger tweeted an image of a panel blocking the emergency exit, potentially obstructing it in need of an evacuation.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Air India currently operates twenty-two A319-100s, which are 11.7 years old on average.

AirAsia X asks for lease deferrals on Airbus A330-300's

AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur Int'l) has asked lessors to either waive or defer lease payments for its A330-300s due to the financial impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, Flightglobal has reported citing unnamed sources.

The carrier did not confirm the report but said that its exposure to the crisis is high as over 30% of its pre-epidemic capacity was to and from China.

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Airbus A321 converted freighter secures EASA certification

European authorities have certified the Airbus A321 passenger-to-freighter conversion undertaken by the airframer’s EFW joint venture with ST Engineering.

Approval of the supplementary type certificate by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency follows the maiden flight of the initial converted aircraft on 22 January. The aircraft is set to be delivered to Vallair.

ST Engineering had recently stated that it expected to secure certification for the P2F conversion by the end of the first quarter of 2020.